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Saint Laurent opens Paris Fashion Week with a cinematic S/S 2026 show
(Image credit: Photography by Jason Hughes)
As has become tradition, Anthony Vaccarello’s latest collection for Saint Laurent unfolded with the Eiffel Tower as backdrop – this season, in a runway space lined with blooming bushes of hydrangeas. During his tenure so far, the Belgian designer has built a distinctive visual language at the house, one which evolves each season but is rooted in the idea of a powerful, towering femininity – encapsulated in his signature wide-shouldered, 1980s-inflected silhouettes.
Held last night as Paris Fashion Week’s opening act, this season, that silhouette was translated into a series of broad-shouldered leather looks, some worn with dramatic blown-up pussybow blouses (‘black leather-clad princess à la Mapplethorpe,’ he described), while diaphanous trench coats and billowing ruffled gowns were rendered in a featherweight technical fabric, a contemporary alternative to the silk they evoked (‘descendants of the Duchess of Guermantes or John Singer Sargent’s famed “Madame X” trade their silks for technical textiles,’ read the collection notes).
It made for a typically cinematic outfit from the designer who, as ever, gathered the strongest front row of fashion month so far – Madonna, Charli XCX, Rosé, Central Cee, Zoe Kravitz and Hailey Bieber were all in attendance, while Bella Hadid made her first runway appearance in some time. Jack Moss
